Elevating Positivity toward STEM Pathways through Communal Experience: The Key Role of Beliefs that STEM Affords Other‐Oriented Goals

Abstract

Abstract The goal congruity framework posits that there are consensual beliefs that science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are not perceived to afford valued goals such as working with or helping others relative to fields such as law and medicine. In three studies, we examine whether experiences engaging with others in the context of STEM would lead to beliefs that STEM fulfills communal goals, and in turn to heightened interest in those fields. In Study 1, we provide evidence that direct experiences such as collaboration, mentorship, and volunteering in the context of STEM predicted greater beliefs that STEM fields allowed communal opportunities, even when controlling for other facets of experience. In Study 2, we replicate and extend these findings with an experimental design, and found that both short‐term and long‐term communal experience contributed to greater communal affordances and to more positive STEM attitudes. Study 3 demonstrated the effects of communal experience in a naturalistic setting, among a group of high school students. The belief that STEM fields afford communal opportunities robustly predicts positivity toward STEM, and understanding the sources of these beliefs is thus an important question that can inform educational and organizational policy.

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